Denn jeder sucht ein All zu sein

We are here at the river, and still the sun hangs above us. One can only marvel that the sun, burning away across millions of years, thereby destroying itself with its heat – creates life for the contiguous whole, in a sort of equilibrium between life and death. Until, one day, it expires.

subbotnik can dance! The German-Russian-Ukrainian collective attempts to approach the inevitable – death. Together with choreographer SE Struck, they scrutinise the demise of us all in the form of a poetic and theatrical ritual. In the reverberation of life’s narratives, strangely beautiful dances and explosions in foggy landscapes, they perform a collective attempt at dying through musical and dance, as a confession and appraisal of our fugacity. “Denn jeder sucht ein All zu sein” is the start of a new series by these exceptionally gifted narrators about the different human phases in life.

subbotnik

Düsseldorf- and Cologne-based theatre collective subbotnik connects vocal and instrumental compositions, narration and live performance in order to form an idiosyncratic stage language. For their unique contributions to theatre, the group was awarded the Support Grant for Performing Arts of the City of Düsseldorf, back in 2013. With their first production “Die Sehnsucht des Menschen ein Tier zu werden”, the German-Russian-Ukrainian trio toured North Rhine-Westphalia, while 2014’s follow-up “Robinson Crusoe” received invitations to children and youth theatre gathering Westwind as well as to Spielarten. It received three invitations altogether to participate in North Rhine-Westphalian theatre festival FAVORITEN 2014. subbotnik successfully opened the FFT’s 2014/2015 season with their piece “Der Traum eines lächerlichen Menschen”. FFT co-production “Götter. Wie die Welt entstand.” received the Cologne children and youth theatre award 2016 as well as another invitation to children and youth theatre gathering Westwind 2017 and to Berlin festival Spurensuche. Follow-up production “Helden” was invited to children and youth theatre gathering Westwind 2018 and to Augenblick mal! 2019 in Berlin.

Credits

Performance and music: Nadja Duesterberg, Kornelius Heidebrecht, Jörg Hornbostel, Anca Huma, Martin Kloepfer, Henning Nierstenhöfer and Oleg Zhukov. Choreography: SE Struck. Dramaturgical counsel and production: Liljan Halfen. Assistance: Svea Kirschmeier. Production: subbotnik. Co-production: FFT Düsseldorf, studiobühneköln. In collaboration with SE Struck. Supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne, the Cultural Office of the State Capital of Düsseldorf, and the Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.